Topic: Pricking out lettuce

[Gordonmull]

Hi folks

Quick on here: Will lettuce get upset if I sow to a tray/pot and prick it out?

I got "Mortons Secret Mix" lettuce from realseeds and I'm now realising the downside - we only use about 3 lettuce a month so to get variety I'm sowing quite heavily and culling the ones we don't want. It would be less wasteful to prick out the ones I want to grow on and use the rest as micro-salad but I don't know if that's possible. 

Cheers

Gord

[davyw1]

HA HA i have just answered this on your other thread

But why cull them when you can put the number of seeds you want to grow in at regular intervals

[macmac]

I sow a pinch of seed,
prick out to cell packs when large enough to handle,sow another pinch of seed,
plant out when large enough,prick out 2nd sowing and sow another pinch....
It only fails for me when it's too hot and the seed won't germinate.

[Gordonmull]

Hmm. Think I've been doing this a bit a*** for elbow. Well that's good news that lettuce will take the abuse from pricking out. I will change my ways!

[Robert_Brenchley]

If it's a mix, plant a lot, cull any that don't grow well, and save seed from the ones you don't eat. In future years, save the best for seed, and create your own variety. I'm trying it with broadies; why not lettuce as well?

[Gordonmull]

It's a nice idea, Robert, and definitely something i will think about next year. This year, I'm on Gardening Level 1 - just getting enough to actually grow to feed us. Seed saving-wise I think it will only be cucumber this year. It's the only single species I'm growing from any of the families and it doesn't sound to hard.

Incidently - what family is lettuce from, I always thought brassica?

Anyway, whether i go down that route or not will be purely dependant on space. I only have 2 beds, one is 4mx3m and the other is the same with a wee 2mx1m bit at the top. The potatoes occupy one bed and everything else is in the other. I want some PSB for the spring gap next yeartoo, so finding space for lettuces to improve their genetics for my site/taste has to be secondary to food in the belly.

Right up my street though. I'd love to do it. Just have to wait and see how this year goes. What shortages, gluts etc. comes out of it. It is, as they say, a learning curve.  :)

[AdeTheSpade]

Hi Gordonmull, just looked up lettuce which is from the Compositae family - the same one as sunflowers and asters apparently, so isn't a brassica. 
Just a thought re space for anything relatively short lived, including lettuces, I often plant mine in between other plants, eg PSB (I usually have plenty of room there) and even between the rows of potatoes - just a thought if you're short of space...

[manicscousers]

We do lots of lettuce mixes in troughs, saves them from the slugs  ;D

[Gordonmull]

Ade - never thought of that. The PSB won't need the space until the lettuce grows and gets scoffed/used for seed. I might well have a go at this, provided said lettuce can avoid the salad bowl long enough to go to seed of course *need a "chomp, chomp mmmmmm!" smiley* Ta for the family info - that puts it with daisy, dandelion (!), groundsel (!), Thistle(!!!), among others. Interesting. I'm actually looking forward to seeing lettuce flower.

Manics, wish i had room for more containers but every square inch is booked up by tomatoes and I swear if you watch my tomatoes long enough you can see them grow  ;) I'll find a spare patch for any "not wants" from each sowing and they'll go into a trough to be cropped off as micro salad. Just got to get Mrs K over the fact she's "eating babies"  ::)

Really, thanks everyone for the tips, you've helped out a lot. I've got plenty of bare ground just now so I'll use it, and if there happens to be a lettuce in the way when I need the space that it's in, then it's salad time!

[antipodes]

I struggled with lettuce in containers, now I do the same as with brassicas - I make a little seedbed in the corner of the plot somewhere and I just keep sowing small amounts of lettuce throughout the season, out there in the open. If you take out a few at a time, and plant them out, leave the others where they are - eventually you will get a big ball of lettuce babies that you can eat anyway!!! I have given loads away to plot neighbours too, good for public relations!
I now plant a couple of lettuces in any spare space - if you have runner bean wigwams, plant lettuce under them now as they will be ready before they get too shaded by the beans... I took out radishes and stuck in a few lettuce babies... I don't have a lot of luck with lettuce but this year they are growing quite well with all the rain we are having.